It was the climax of George W. Bush's video introduction at the Republican convention: the moment at Yankee Stadium during the 2001 World Series when he threw a pitch all the way to home plate. The video ended, and the conventioneers cheered as Mr. Bush strode onto a stage shaped like a pitcher's mound.

Well, live by the pitch, die by the pitch. When you campaign as the man on the mound, the great leader whose arm rescues Americans in their moment of need, they expect you to deal with a hurricane too.

Mr. Bush made a lot of mistakes last week, but most of his critics are making an even bigger one now by obsessing about what he said and did. We can learn more by listening to men like Jim Judkins, particularly when he explains the Magic Marker method of disaster preparedness.

Mr. Judkins is one of the officials in charge of evacuating the Hampton Roads region around Newport News, Va. These coastal communities, unlike New Orleans, are not below sea level, but they're much better prepared for a hurricane. Officials have plans to run school buses and borrow other buses to evacuate those without cars, and they keep registries of the people who need special help.

Instead of relying on a "Good Samaritan" policy --- the fantasy in New Orleans that everyone would take care of their neighbors -- the Virginia rescue workers go door to door. If people resist the plea to leave, Mr. Judkins told The Daily Press in Newport News, rescue workers give them Magic Markers and ask them to write their Social Security numbers on their body parts so they can be identified.

It's cold, but it's effective," Mr. Judkins explained.

That simple stragety could have persuaded hundreds of people to save their own lives in New Orleans. What the city needed most was coldly effective local leaders, not a president in Washington who could feel their pain. It's the same lesson we should have learned from Sept. 11 and other disasters, yet both liberals and conservatives keep ignoring it.

The liberals bewailing the insensitivity and racism of Republicans in Washington sound like a bad rerurn of the 1960s, when urban riots were blamed on everyone but the rioters and the police. Yes, the White House did a terrible job of responding to Katrina, but Democratic leaders in New Orleans and Louisiana didn't even fulfill their basic duties.

In coastal Virginia --- which, by the way, has a large black population and plenty of Republican politicians --- Mr. Judkins and his colleagues assume that it's their job to evacuate people, maintain order and stockpile supplies to last for 72 hours, until federal help arrives. In New Orleans, the mayor seemed to assume all that was beyond his control, just like the mayors in the 1960s who let the riots occur.

They said their cities couldn't survive without help from Washington, which proceeded to shower inner cities with money and programs that did more damage than the riots. Cities didn't recover until some mayors, especially Republicans like Rudy Giuliani, tried self-reliance.

Mr. Giuliani was called heartless and racist for cutting the welfare rolls and focusing on crime reduction, but black neighborhoods were the greatest beneficiaries of his policies. He was criticized for ignoring social servicies as he concentrated on reorganizing the Police and Fire Departments, but his cold effectiveness paid off, made the city a more livable place and kept it calm after Sept. 11.

Yet Mr. Bush, with approval from conservatives who should have known better, reacted to Sept. 11 by centralizing disaster planning in Washington. He created the byzantine Homeland Security Department, with predictable results last week.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, often criticized for ineptitude, became even less efficient after it was swallowed by a bureaucracy consumed with terrorism. The department has spent billions on new federal airport screeners --- with no discernible public benefit --- while giving short shrift to natural disasters.

The federal officials who had been laboring on a one-size-fits-all strategy were unprepared for the peculiarities of New Orleans, like the high percentage of people without cars. The local officials who knew about that problem didn't do anything about it --- and then were furious when Mr. Bush didn't solve it for them. Why didn't the man on the mound come through for them?

It's a fair question as they go door to door looking for bodies. But so is this: Why didn't they go door to door last week with Magic Markers?

"Freud" - If your intent was to display balance within your post, you have failed. If your intent was to even out some of the extreme left wing rhetoric with extreme rightism, you have succeeded. If your intent was to rally your flock, you are a genius.

Surely you must realize that the New York Times op-ed you quote uses, very well, the lie of "framing". The lie that is being used, as is being used throughout the rightwing controlled mainstream media, is that the failings at the local level were "personal", whereas the failings at the federal level were "institutional".

There have been many references in the internet media to personal failings on the federal level; the ones that upset me are the brazen lies that have been told, mostly unchallenged. Example: FEMA couldn't come in because the Governor of Louisiana never declared a state of emergency (actually was declared two days before the storm hit). Example: GW Bush called the Mayor of N.O. and begged him to evacuate his city (he called the Governor and said nothing about evacuation, minutes before a preplanned press conference where the Governor and Mayor announced the evacuation).

My point is not that the feds or the locals are more or less to blame. My point is that there are all kinds of lies.

I won't even get into my personal feelings about Barbara B. (let them eat cake, its ok they're poor anyway) or GWB who can interrupt a vacation for signing the Terry Schiavo bill but goes to a fundraiser and strums guitar while all this chaos is going on.

Regarding Mayor Rudi, the article praises his cutting of services, but fails to note that he was brought to court and found guilty of not providing constitutionally mandated social services to the NYC poor. It gives him credit for improving the black community, but it fails to note the across the board improvements in narrowing the gap between rich and poor nationwide, which were no better in NYC than the average. No doubt he did an amazing job after 9/11, but on 9/10 he had two months left until the election, and was about to be remembered as the adulterer who blindly defended police torturers.

The lie that is being used, as is being used throughout the rightwing controlled mainstream media, is that the failings at the local level were "personal", whereas the failings at the federal level were "institutional".

Is any right-winger controlling you? I don't see anyone- you're typing what ever comes to your mind-plenty boring!

There was nothing extreme right in that article. Like most people you see what you want to see.

The point of the article was that a bloated centralized bureaucracy can never do the job that should be done by the locals. Self-reliance is a thing of the past in this country. Individually and collectively. You want to live by big government---you'll die by big government.

"Freud" - Your comment is your opinion, as was mine. You are like "most" too, you see what you want to see too. The point of the article is hidden behind the framing, and I have already addressed this issue.

Your flock has followed you, as I expected. Enjoy the koolaid.

Oh yes, by the way, don't try and fool me by the reference to "this country", unless you're here on one of your many holidays. God save the Queen!

I just read the article you posted the link to, Bobbie. Here's another indicator of the 'compassion and caring' ~ especially since the ASPCA and other, major, animal rescue agencies have been well organized and in place for the rescue and care of animals affected and displaced by this disaster. Between drinking or being exposed to the toxic water and starvation, they are being left to die certain and excruciating deaths as a result of the major-organ shutdown. The people who do care are staying behind, I would guess partly out of shock; partly out of faith that someone will come to assist both people and their pets; and definitely out of love and commitment to the responsibility they took on with pet ownership. A mere boat ride out, and the pet would have a place to be sheltered and cared for.

In an interview I heard yesterday, a woman who's in close proximity to Bush, in Washington, related her conversation with him regarding the boondoggle. She said to him that he needed to fire everyone in the FEMA agency, related to this. He said, in his feigned naieve, baffled voice ~ "Why would I do that?" She replied to the effect of, "Because of everything that went wrong with their handling of this;" to which he replied, "What went wrong?"

I can't say enough bad about these people with their attitudes, either.

I thought of you this morning, Tchoc, when I listened to a segment on the Live Oaks [which is a specific variety, pronounced with a long "i"] in New Orleans. There exists an organization with 501 members, one of which is human, the other 500 being trees, hundreds-of-years old, huge and mighty Live Oaks. A woman had documented each tree, with its unique characteristics and location, and named each one, with appropriately warm and embracing names. Now, she is watching them nearly totally submerged in toxic wastewater, with many of their still-exposed canopies beginning to turn brown. Research and experience have shown the hardy Live Oak to be extremely resilient and able to withstand deep flooding. I have a couple in my yard, and they are quick with their regrowth. However, the flooding with previous research [along river banks, etc.] has been for much shorter periods and untainted water. The Live Oak obtains its oxygen through its root systems which, of course, are being choked. The ending comment was that, after the water is drained, she will be updating her documentation and her final entry on many will be "Deceased."

In addition, as if all this isn't bad enough.. I was listening to NPR this morning, about all the things that have gone wrong, about all the ways the requested budget had been drastically denied and cut in the past two years for fixing and modernizing the levees (almost 3/4) and then came the following priceless tidbit about Michael Brown... I knew (had heard) that he was incompetent for the job to begin with, but I didn't know any details. It seems that prior to being named head of FEMA, he worked for 11 years in some organization (can't remember which) as a judge of Arabian horses - one of his responsibilities in this job was to make decisions about which horse's rear end needed liposuction. I had a hard time believing my ears. Upon further consideration, as I was about ready to boil over in disbelief and flabbergasted frustration, it occured to me that perhaps this wasn't such a bad thing to have on your resume when you are working for the United States Government.... at least you have some experience with horses asses.